Linda feels that this series “We see Yvonne’s nasty streak because she has been provoked. In front of people she will always show that she is in control but there is a lot more of her vulnerability along the way, which is to do with her husband, her daughter and money circumstances”.
Yvonne makes prison work for her and Linda sees her as “A mother figure within the prison amongst the young girls - with her gangland contacts on the outside, she makes things happen to ease some of their situations on the inside. She takes Denny (Alicya Eyo) under her wing after finding out about her history. I think that she pulled a heartstring for Yvonne, what with having a daughter of her own the same age. Even though the two girls are very, very different, it saddens her to see how Denny has turned out. Her own daughter, Lauren (Danielle King) is loved and never wanted for anything - but she does have a mother in prison and a villain for a father!”
“She’ll do anything for her family – they are the most important thing in her life. Yvonne’s crime was that she had hired a hit man to kill someone who was going to kill her husband - and was then grassed up. She’s part of the Essex underworld and I see her as having lived in a huge house with a pool, and villa in Spain. Even on the inside she wears the designer gear and jewellery – she likes the good things in life. She knows the Business inside out and uses that to make life on the inside bearable. Yvonne is a survivor and she’d kill anyone who crossed her - she doesn’t have any qualms about that”.
Linda has worked with inmates inside prison, on an improvised play whilst at the Royal National Theatre. “I didn’t meet anyone like Yvonne inside, but I learnt that behind those bars are normal people. Whilst I was there, it wasn’t all violence and doom and gloom - but I wasn’t there 24 hours a day. As I got to know inmates, what I hated most was that I could go home of a night and they couldn’t - especially the ones with kids”.
Yvonne makes prison work for her and Linda sees her as “A mother figure within the prison amongst the young girls - with her gangland contacts on the outside, she makes things happen to ease some of their situations on the inside. She takes Denny (Alicya Eyo) under her wing after finding out about her history. I think that she pulled a heartstring for Yvonne, what with having a daughter of her own the same age. Even though the two girls are very, very different, it saddens her to see how Denny has turned out. Her own daughter, Lauren (Danielle King) is loved and never wanted for anything - but she does have a mother in prison and a villain for a father!”
“She’ll do anything for her family – they are the most important thing in her life. Yvonne’s crime was that she had hired a hit man to kill someone who was going to kill her husband - and was then grassed up. She’s part of the Essex underworld and I see her as having lived in a huge house with a pool, and villa in Spain. Even on the inside she wears the designer gear and jewellery – she likes the good things in life. She knows the Business inside out and uses that to make life on the inside bearable. Yvonne is a survivor and she’d kill anyone who crossed her - she doesn’t have any qualms about that”.
Linda has worked with inmates inside prison, on an improvised play whilst at the Royal National Theatre. “I didn’t meet anyone like Yvonne inside, but I learnt that behind those bars are normal people. Whilst I was there, it wasn’t all violence and doom and gloom - but I wasn’t there 24 hours a day. As I got to know inmates, what I hated most was that I could go home of a night and they couldn’t - especially the ones with kids”.